In this blog you will see a journey being taken by students and teacher to build up our minds, muscles and imaginations together through inquiry, exploration, investigation, problem solving and teamwork!

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Saturday, June 6, 2015

Every year I bring my Tortoise in for a visit during the last week of school. His name is Steven.

After putting away our sky inquiry experiences it was easy to set out some pictures for inspiration and art materials so the kids could show what they noticed about Steven and tortoises using different mediums such as water color, pastels, tempra paint at the easel, collage and clay.

The kids created many beautiful pieces that showed what they noticed!

They also used loose parts to create tortoises...

and pasta!

They loved trying to create habitats, mazes, and obstacle courses for him. This took a lot of planning, collaboration and teamwork as they came up with designs together and worked together to build them.

He had so much fun interacting with the kids and exploring!

The kids observed him and documented what they noticed. They labeled all the parts of a tortoise and wrote their favorite thing that they learned about Steven.

We also wondered what his favorite food would be. They made predictions and then observed!

He chose the carrot first on the first day. The second day he chose peas.

Writing was happening everywhere during playtime! Wonderings, cards, stories...all about and for Steven. The message written by our friend below says, "I wonder what Steven is going to do in the habitats?"

I love this little tortoise sized card one friend made to keep in his habitat at home.

It was a wonderful way to spend the last few days of school. They were focused on tasks of their choosing and had so much fun together as they did it.

On the last day we watched a movie, ate popcorn, played with each other and enjoyed each other's company. A book was made for the future kindergartners with all of he things they can expect. My favorites were, "You will look closer at everything" and "You will learn about whatever you want" and "You will explore!"

It was so hard to say goodbye to these special friends! When you spend nine months, five days a week, six hours a day with someone, you create a very strong bond with them. It is so hard to say goodbye as they leave knowing this wonderful community will be split up into seperate elementary schools and most I will never see again. We shed a lot of tears as we said goodbye but we have wonderful memories that we will cherish forever! I will miss these kids!

I am a Kindergarten Teacher for West Carrollton City Schools (West Carrollton, Ohio, U.S.). I have taught kindergarten for 24 years. In this blog, you will see both teacher and students on a journey to build up our minds, muscles, and imaginations through inquiry, investigation, exploration, problem solving and teamwork. We learn together through a project/inquiry and play based learning environment. I have been on a journey from a traditional, thematic based teaching style to a more student-led, project/inquiry and play based teaching style. The more I learn from all of you wonderful teachers around the world, the more fun I am having inquiring, exploring and learning along side my students. I hope that this blog will be an inspiration for those of you thinking about doing the same.